Netstor 2U rackmount 16-bay 2.5" Thunderbolt 3 JBOD with PCIe expansion

Netstor NA338TB3 2U 16-bay (2.5") Thunderbolt 3 storage and PCIe expansion

The Netstor NA338TB3 is a 2U rackmount enclosure only 42 cm deep, designed for transportable racks: light, easy to carry and suited to on-site as well as in-studio real-time editing and 4K UHD streaming workflows. It holds sixteen 2.5" SAS/SATA HDDs or SSDs and offers three PCIe 3.0 slots, connected to Thunderbolt 3 Macs at 40 Gbps.

It is supplied without a RAID card: a 16-port RAID adapter in one of the PCIe slots turns the JBOD into an enterprise RAID storage with RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50 or 60, and the two remaining slots take other professional cards. Four quiet 60 mm fans cool the drives, and a built-in plate drawer can hold a Mac mini (2018) to create a transportable storage server.

Key features

• 2U 19" rackmount chassis, 42 cm short depth for transportable racks
• 16 bays for 2.5" SAS/SATA 12/6 Gb/s drives (drives sold separately)
• 460 W high-efficiency, low-noise power supply
• Built-in plate drawer for installing a Mac mini (2018)
• Takes an internal 16-port RAID card with Thunderbolt driver (sold separately) for RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60
• Three PCIe 3.0 x8 slots: besides the RAID card, two more professional cards (video capture, transcoding, audio accelerator, network card)
• Drive trays for 2.5" HDDs/SSDs up to 15 mm thick
• Thunderbolt 3 at 40 Gbps, up to 2750 MB/s
• Dual Thunderbolt 3 ports: daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt devices, with two 4K UHD displays or one 5K display
• Fan, temperature and per-tray LEDs, mutable alarm buzzer
• Mac certified, works with all Thunderbolt Macs
• 2 m active Thunderbolt 3 cable included

Compatibility

• Mac computers with Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 ports, Apple silicon (M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra) or Intel
• macOS: Mac OS X 10.12.3 or later
• Thunderbolt 2 Macs need the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 adapter
• RAID cards with internal 16 ports and a Thunderbolt driver, e.g. Areca ARC-1883ix-16 (offered by Netstor as accessory BARC1883IX16)
• Third-party PCIe cards must provide a Thunderbolt-aware macOS driver

Notes

• Supplied without RAID card; hard drives, SSDs and PCIe cards are not included.
• Optional accessory from Netstor: Areca ARC-1883ix-16 RAID card BARC1883IX16.
• Netstor lists macOS support only for this model; Windows is not mentioned in the official specifications.
• With Areca ARC-1226 or ARC-1883 RAID cards and Apple silicon Macs (M1/M2), Netstor reports a possible reboot loop at power-on because the Mac boots faster than the drives spin up: the fix is Areca firmware v1.62 (2022/04/27) or later, "Delay For JBOD Init" disabled and "Stagger Power On Control" set to 0.4 s.
• Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 run at the same 40 Gbps: according to Netstor, this Thunderbolt 3 unit can be connected to either a Thunderbolt 3 or a Thunderbolt 4 port on the host computer.

In the box

• Enclosure
• 16 drive trays (installed)
• 4 internal miniSAS cables
• Thunderbolt 3 40 Gbps cable, 2 m
• 64 drive mounting screws
• 2 keys for drive trays
• Power cord

Specifications

• Host interface: dual Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports for host connection and daisy-chain, 40 Gbps, compatible with Thunderbolt 4 host ports
• Drive interface: SAS/SATA (12/6 Gb/s)
• Drive bays: 16, for 2.5" SSDs/HDDs up to 15 mm thick
• PCIe card size: full length, full height
• Power supply: 460 W single PSU, high efficiency and low noise, input 90-230 VAC 50-60 Hz, outputs +5 V and +12 V
• Cooling: four 60 x 60 x 25 mm fans
• Dimensions: 415 (D) x 482 (W) x 88.5 (H) mm (2U)
• RAID: requires an internal 16-port RAID card with Thunderbolt driver (sold separately)
• PCIe slot expansion: three PCIe 3.0 x8 slots
• Thunderbolt expansion: up to 6 Thunderbolt devices
• Enclosure LEDs: fan normal green / failure red; temperature normal green / over 50 °C red
• Tray LEDs: white power on, flashing blue access, red failure
• Alarm: mutable buzzer for fan failure or over temperature
• Housing: heavy-duty cold-rolled steel
• Environment: operating 5 to 40 °C, storage -10 to 50 °C, relative humidity 20-80% non-condensing